Valentine Ramotar is an elite Navroyan soldier, veteran of countless battles, and an experimental full-body cyborg. Valentine has defended his nation against many threats, mostly internal, and the majority of his work is unknown to the public. Though he has doubts about some of the things he's ordered to do, Valentine is loyal and carries out his duties well. However, post-traumatic stress disorder and the rigors of having most of his body replaced with cyberware have wreaked havoc on his psyche, and his conviction is weakening with every new day.
Background
Appearance
Valentine is an extremely large man, standing seven and a half feet tall due to his augmentations, though this was not the size he was born as. As well as being very tall, Valentine is very bulky (also due to his augmentations). Being a cyborg almost completely, with only his brain, part of his spinal cord, and a few glands remaining from his original body, Valentine's limbs, body, skull, and outward appearance are completely artificial. His body is a slick and shiny black, with artificial muscle cords laid bare on most of his body. If he desired it, he could have artificial skin overlaid, but he usually doesn't bother.
Valentine has several interchangeable facial masks that function identically to real faces, expressions and all, which were developed by Dr. Bram and her colleagues. Without one, his face is a skeletal framework of metal and plastic, and with one, his face seems real. While his original, unmarred face was first created for him by the mask crafters, he specifically requested the one of his face before it was replaced. He wears none of his masks unless he's going out in public, or on a mission.
Before his body was replaced, Valentine was a short man with dark tan skin and black hair. He had severe scarring on his legs and body, and on the left side of his face, with long, jagged gouges running from his lips all the way up on his cheek and through his scalp. His disfigurement in that regard left him with a constant snarl, as he was unable to close his lips fully on that side of his mouth.
Personality
Valentine is, at heart, a violent man. He enjoys the thrill of combat with a worthy foe, and enjoys having ultimate power over a helpless opponent after he's defeated them. However, he loathes killing the unarmed, or noncombatants, though he will if he's ordered to. His commitment to his duty is normally second only to a robot, though in his current incarnation it's been corroded somewhat. It's only during combat that he feels truly alive, and so he seeks it out. He especially likes to use explosives, and watching things explode is one of his favorite activities.
Outside of combat, Valentine is a melancholy and somber man who does not like to engage in many social activites. Due to his size and obvious augmentations, he feels like a freak, and avoids almost all contact with other people. He tries not to spend a lot of time thinking about whether his current position is the right thing for him, and tries not to moralize in general. He prefers to take a neutral stance in most situations, hiding behind his condition and his orders.
History
Valentine was born to a low-income family in Navroya's undercity, and grew up there. With few prospects, Valentine put his aggression to use by joining a mercenary company. Unfortunately for him, he stepped on a land mine while fighting insurrectionists and lost his legs at a young age. In the hospital, he was approached by a young Violet Bram and offered the chance to regain his health through an experimental program -- one which he readily accepted in order for the chance to walk again. As the two spent more and more time together, Bram initiated a relationship that some would consider inappropriate between a patient and doctor, but which Valentine welcomed with open arms. Feeling affection for the first person since his injury, and knowing he owed his ability to walk to her, Valentine fell in love with her.
Bram, however, saw Valentine less as a soulmate and more as a way to further her research and create something beautiful at the same time. Though she took advantage of him for sex, Bram mostly used Valentine as an experiment and continued to replace more and more of his body with cyberware until he reached his current condition. He became a potent weapon against rebels, revolutionaries, and foreigners that would destroy his country, and found destroying them easier and easier with every new modification. As more and more of his body was removed, Valentine felt more and more removed from humanity, and his mental condition suffered accordingly. Now, body almost fully gone, Valentine has little desire to interact with anyone (including Bram), and spends most of his off-time feeling like he doesn't belong in the world.
Abilities and Powers
Valentine is almost completely cybernetic; his strength, speed, stamina, reflexes, and agility are superhuman, and he is nearly impervious to damage from cutting instruments, blunt objects, small arms, fire, biological and radiological hazards, and concussive forces that would kill a regular man. Weapons rated for anti-tank duty can harm him, though due to his speed and stealth capabilities he tends to be difficult to target at all.
Valentine has a number of extraordinary abilities due to his cybernetics, including but not limited to:
immunity to most airborne toxins and irritants, such as tear gas
vision in infrared and ultraviolet ranges, which allows him to see heat signatures and in low-light conditions
drug injectors which both keep his organic components stable and enhance his abilities further
inhuman reflexes and movement speed which make his movements hard for the eye to follow should he move that fast
armor integrated into his flesh
a thermoptic stealth system which renders him undetectable to normal and thermal vision for short periods of time
a sophisticated software suite which renders his cybernetics impervious to all but the most expert hacking attempts
motors and gyros which make his footsteps almost completely silent even while sprinting
Apart from his body, Valentine is a highly trained and highly experienced soldier, and is especially dangerous at close ranges. Though he normally works with small units or alone in the field, he is capable of planning and commanding raids using larger amounts of men.
Relationships
Dr. Violet Bram
Violet is the one that created Valentine's body and the one that oversees repairs, modifications, and additions on it, and thus Valentine sees a lot of Violet. Since they also have a relationship which he's afraid might be the last thing tying him to emotions of any sort, Valentine spends a lot of his down time hiding in Bram's giant apartment and trying to feel better for her sake. He doesn't mind that she's very possessive of him, but has always wanted more of an emotional connection out of the relationship than Bram, who mostly wants a physical relationship.